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Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan on Tuesday underscored the need for constant military preparedness, declaring that “peace without power is utopian.” Quoting the Latin maxim “If you want peace, prepare for war”, he said India is a peace-loving nation, “but cannot afford to be pacifist.”
The CDS was speaking at the inaugural edition of Ran Samwad, a two-day tri-service military seminar at the Army War College, Mhow. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will deliver the plenary address on the concluding day.
In a pointed reference to Pakistan, Gen. Chauhan said Operation Sindoor – India’s military response to the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22 – “is still on.” Calling it a “modern conflict,” he noted that “several lessons have been learnt and are under implementation.”
Joint Preparedness for Future Conflicts
Highlighting the rapidly evolving nature of conflict across land, sea, air, cyber and space, the CDS said India’s armed forces must respond in a unified, swift and decisive manner. “The future battlefield does not recognise service boundaries. It demands joint thinking, joint planning and joint execution,” he said.
The seminar, he explained, is designed to put serving officers at the forefront of strategic dialogue. “This is not about showcasing power. It is about shaping clarity of purpose, unity of effort and shared operational understanding across services,” Gen. Chauhan remarked.
He also differentiated between the concepts of war, warfare and warfighting – describing them as the military’s “bread and butter.” While geopolitics and diplomacy were important, he cautioned that they could distract from the armed forces’ primary job: preparing for and fighting wars.
Technology, Integration and Mission Sudarshan Chakra
Gen. Chauhan hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day announcement of Mission Sudarshan Chakra – India’s ambitious indigenous air defence programme inspired by Lord Krishna’s mythological weapon. He noted that DRDO was developing an integrated system combining QRSAM, VSHORADS and directed-energy weapons such as 5-kilowatt lasers.
He emphasised the importance of multi-domain intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), integrating sensors across land, air, sea, undersea and space. “A colossal amount of integration will be required to generate a fused operational picture,” he said.
Data-driven technologies, including artificial intelligence, quantum computing, advanced analytics and large language models, would be central to real-time decision-making, he added, expressing confidence that DRDO could deliver these capabilities “at minimal and affordable cost.”
A New Format for Strategic Dialogue
Unlike traditional seminars where veterans address serving officers, Ran Samwad will see current practitioners of warfighting lead discussions. Each session will unveil operational lessons, joint doctrines and a technology roadmap for future combat.
General Anil Chauhan, Chief of Defence Staff delivers the Keynote Address at #RANSAMWAD2025, themed 'Impact of Technology on Warfare'. #CDS highlights the ascedency of technology over strategy, elucidating that the future battlefields will not recognise service boundaries; calls… pic.twitter.com/dj86wW4YmB
— HQ IDS (@HQ_IDS_India) August 26, 2025
Themes include information warfare, grey-zone conflicts, integrated operations and next-generation technologies. Senior commanders of all three services, defence industry leaders, global security experts, and defence attachés from 17 countries, including Australia, France, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, South Korea, and several African and Middle Eastern nations, are attending the seminar.
“Ran Samwad aims to reset the narrative within the armed forces,” Gen. Chauhan said, “placing war, warfare and warfighting back at the centre of military thought.”
Ravi Shankar, Mhow
Dr Ravi Shankar has over two decades of experience in communications, print journalism, electronic media, documentary film making and new media.
He makes regular appearances on national television news channels as a commentator and analyst on current and political affairs. Apart from being an acknowledged Journalist, he has been a passionate newsroom manager bringing a wide range of journalistic experience from past associations with India’s leading media conglomerates (Times of India group and India Today group) and had led global news-gathering operations at world’s biggest multimedia news agency- ANI-Reuters. He has covered Parliament extensively over the past several years. Widely traveled, he has covered several summits as part of media delegation accompanying the Indian President, Vice President, Prime Minister, External Affairs Minister and Finance Minister across Asia, Africa and Europe.
